"You cannot build a solid structure on just UGC alone."
Her core counter-take to the UGC-maximalist era — UGC is a style, not a foundation.
"I think it's so funny when I have clients come to me and they're like, well, we only have UGC and it's like, well then you're you're doing it wrong."
On brands that have over-rotated into UGC and lost the ability to build brand image.
"One person cannot do everything, so don't expect them to."
On the myth of the unicorn graphic designer doing copy, design, and video editing.
"Evergreen, trend, evergreen, trend. Trends are going to fatigue much faster than evergreen."
Her mental model for balancing an ad account against mass simultaneous fatigue.
"If you only have one thing in your account, things are going to fatigue so much faster and you're constantly going to have to be spinning your wheels and updating all the time."
Case for creative diversification as an operational, not just aesthetic, decision.
"The only way you're going to learn is to actually go inside of it... sit down with your media buyer, grab a pen and paper and be like, teach me what you do."
Her advice for designers who want to become creative strategists — no shortcut, get in the account.
"I actually, when I first started, to be honest, I I stocked a lot of social media managers."
Her sourcing hack for finding UGC creators who already understand brand content.
"There's a lot of people out there doesn't mean they're necessarily good."
On why she now turns down most UGC creators who pitch her — supply is not the problem, skill is.
"There's video in the sense of UGC and there's video in the sense of an animated static... a lot of people's misconception is that they think video and they automatically think UGC, but like that's not really the case."
Pushing back on conflating 'video ad' with 'UGC talking head'.
"It is a very different world of how to actually shoot user generated content for a DTC space because they need to understand how to actually sell the product, but sell it in a way that's a storytelling thoughtful way so that people actually resonate with it."
On vetting UGC creators for DTC-specific storytelling skills, not just general content ability.
"You have to talk to that person and not necessarily, you know, share like get so nitty gritty... just making sure that you're just understanding the people element again."
On why brand owners over-stuff scripts with ingredients and features instead of speaking to the person.
"You have to make sure that you're still adding in those statics, those simple elements of, you know, creative... you still have to have carousels, like you still have to have those simple things that are going to pop out in people's feed."
The case for statics and carousels in a world that forgot them.
